


The Not So Fantastic Four

by respoftw



Series: Tumblr Prompts - McShep edition [22]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Angst, M/M, Mutation, Pre-Slash, Superpowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-31 00:05:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12120234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/respoftw/pseuds/respoftw
Summary: John had always wanted to be a superhero.  Not like this.





	The Not So Fantastic Four

**Author's Note:**

> Dayzor asked for a mutation AU. This isn't really that but it was somewhat inspired by it. In a kind of word association way....

John had secretly wanted to be a superhero since February of 1974 when Bobby O’Reilly from down the street had shown him issue 143 of The Fantastic Four. John had traded his best baseball card for the comic and read it over and over again until it fell apart. Then he had taped it back together and read it some more.

Thirty-three years later, John’s boyhood wish had finally come true and all he wanted was to wake up and find out it had all been a bad dream.

PY6-4T9 was supposed to hold the promise of a ZPM, at least that was what Rodney had thought the very vague information about energy transformation that was briefly mentioned in the Atlantis database had pointed to. They had stepped through the gate to find a dusty planet plagued by sandstorms, an energy signature that Rodney couldn't make head or tails of and a hardy people that were thrilled to meet travellers from another world.

They were interested in trade and more than willing to take John's team to see the source of Rodney's mysterious energy readings, insisting only that the four travellers share a meal with them first.

The food had been good, fresh and flavoured with spices that made John's mouth water. One dish in particular, some kind of meat kebab, was met with the kind of happy food noise that Rodney usually reserved for chocolate fudge cake and John had caught himself thinking that, even if they came away from this mission with nothing but a standard trade agreement, it would be one of their most successful missions yet.

Maybe he only had himself to blame for it all going wrong.

* * *

 

“Oh, this is bad. This is so, so bad.”

John's hand tightened around the grip of his P-90 as Rodney hurriedly disconnected his tablet from the Ancient console inside the cavern the villagers had brought them to. Or, more accurately, brought them near and then insisted that the team go in themselves.

“Gonna kill us all bad or - “

“- - we need to get out of here right _now_ bad.” Rodney's eyes were wide, his face pale in a way that John only ever saw when the situation was about to go FUBAR.

Ronon and Teyla knew that look too and didn't hesitate, making for the narrow gap between the rocks that would take them out of the console room and back to the entrance of the cavern. The same narrow gap that was now blocked with a green force field that had definitely not been there before.

“No, oh no, no, no, no. This cannot be happening. This - -“

“Rodney,” John let go of his P-90 and grabbed Rodney's shoulder when it became clear that Rodney was too busy panicking to hear him. “McKay! What did you see? What’s happening? What’s - -“

A bright white light eclipsed the entire space before Rodney could answer, John's world narrowing down to a high pitched whine and the terrifying blankness of white. He had just enough time to feel guilty that he hadn't been able to protect his team, that he hadn't been able to save them, to save Rodney, before he lost awareness of anything at all.

* * *

“We believe it was originally designed as a way for the Ancients to gain an advantage in the war with the Wraith. The information that Rodney was able to download before,” Radek’s words stuttered and his eyes drifted hesitantly towards the opaque walls of the isolation room. He cleared his throat and pushed up his glasses. “The energy pulse was designed to trigger a mutation in the users. The effects were unique to each person, perhaps dependent on their own physiological and psychological - -“

“Can it be reversed?” John, unlike Radek, hadn't been able to tear his eyes away from the isolation room since Rodney had sequestered himself in there. He did now, though, pinning Radek down with his eyes. “Can you reverse what it did?”

Radek’s shoulders sank a few inches, giving him a defeated and sunken look that John wanted to kick out of him. “No. We cannot. The Ancients could not. It is…” he met John's eyes and John saw the same guilt in them that he felt at his core. “We will not stop trying. _I_ will not.”

John nodded tightly, understanding without words that Radek wouldn't succeed, and let his eyes drift back to Rodney’s hiding place.

This wasn't what getting super powers was supposed to feel like.

* * *

It had been six days since Carson had released them from the infirmary.

Teyla had spent two days meditating, emerging with enough control that she could form a barrier between her thoughts and other people's.

“It is…disconcerting,” she reported during the post-mission briefing, “but I am confident that I can control this…change. I can think of many situations in which it could prove useful.”

Each of them were very careful not to refer to their powers as a gift, no matter what the Ancients had created the machine for. Still, John couldn't argue that Teyla’s newfound ability to read people’s true intentions, the real meaning behind their actions, would be useful. If they were ever let on a team again that was.

Ronon and John trained together, their mutations complimenting each other well when it came to sparring. The energy bolts that Ronon could fire from the palms of his hand were easily absorbed by the defensive shield that John could now throw up with a thought. After a few days training, he could even extend the shield to encompass others.

It was pretty much the definition of ironic that John was given the ability to protect Rodney completely when it was too late to do any good.

None of them had seen Rodney in six days.

He'd let Carson in once a day for a medical check up which was the only evidence John had that he was even still alive but even that had stopped as of this morning. John was done letting him hide.

“Be careful with him, John.” Teyla had cautioned. “His fear and anger are very great.”

John didn't need any special abilities to tell him how Rodney must be feeling but he bit down on the impulse to snap at Teyla but he knew from her tight shoulders that she picked up on it anyway.

Sighing, he pressed their foreheads together and tried to think apologetic thoughts. Teyla smiled sadly. “It was not your fault,” she whispered fiercely. “He does not blame you.”

John swallowed thickly. “He should.”

* * *

“Go away.”

John ignored Rodney's word and coaxed Atlantis into letting him in, the door to Rodney’s self imposed solitary confinement sliding open silently.

Rodney's quarters were pitch black and John thought the lights on just enough that he didn't trip over anything as he made his way into the room. He'd long mastered control of Atlantis’ basic controls and asked the lights to brighten slowly and incrementally, hoping that it wouldn't be obvious what he was doing until he'd achieved his goal.

“Yeah, I'm done keeping away,” John said as he gingerly picked his way through the gloom to where he knew Rodney's bed was. “It's not helping anyone.”

“There is no _helping_.” Rodney's voice was bitter. It sounded like it was coming from the far corner and John sat down on the bed, facing in that direction. If he squinted, he could just about make out the outline of Rodney's frame, squeezed into the corner, as far away from the door as he could get.

“How do you know if you don't let us try?” John asked. “Teyla’s headaches are better. Ronon’s not leaking energy bolts out his hands anymore. We could help you - -“

The lights suddenly flared into full brightness, making a mockery of John's softly softly approach.

“Help me what?” Rodney sneered. “Unless you can turn every person in Atlantis blind, there's no helping me.”

John sucked in a breath as he caught his first real look at Rodney since they had snapped back to awareness in that awful cavern. He was bigger than he used to be; not by much. Maybe an inch or two taller, his shoulders a touch wider. Solid looking. Strong.

Rodney shrank back under John's intense gaze, trying to push himself further into the corner, make himself smaller. The lights darkened again, as quickly as they had come on but John thought them back on immediately.

“Don't hide from me,” he said. “It's just me, Rodney. Let me see you.”

The lights remained on but whether it was because Rodney was listening to him or because John's ATA gene was stronger, he didn't know. Right now, he didn't care.

Rodney's features remained unchanged for the most part. His mouth still sat crooked, his nose still turned up at the end. That was where the similarities ended.

Rodney's skin, once pale and soft, was leathery, almost reptilian in appearance. John knew from Carson that it was almost impervious to injury, tough enough that Carson's sharpest blade couldn't do more than nick it. Blues and greens and golds merged together in a kaleidoscopic pattern that covered every inch of Rodney's body. John couldn't see much of it now, with only Rodney's hands and head uncovered but what he could see was…it was beautiful. Rodney was beautiful.

“I'm a monster.”

Rodney sounded smaller than John had ever heard him. It was wrong that Rodney should ever sound so small. Before he could stop himself, John found himself pushing off the bed and walking towards Rodney, collapsing onto his knees in front of him.

His hand reached out and gripped Rodney's shoulder, his other hand cupping Rodney's chin and lifting Rodney's head until John was looking into reptilian red eyes that were 100% Rodney. John could see everything in them, Rodney's eyes had always been so expressive, an open window. That hadn't changed.

“You're the smartest man in two galaxies,” John said.

Rodney shook his head. “Not a man.  Not even human. Not anymore.”

“Yes, a human. You are the most stubborn human I've ever met,” John insisted. “And the most frustrating. The most loyal. You cry when you listen to Bach and have a weird obsession with Jack Lemmon movies. You can hit a paper target more accurately than 80% of my marines but lose that ability completely when you're in the field. You make me laugh like no one else can and - - “

“STOP IT!” Rodney pushed him away, the power in the shove reminding John that the changes in Rodney weren't purely aesthetic. “Don't you dare pander to me. I'm the fucking _Thing_ , John. You, Teyla and Ronon think you know what I'm going through and I'm sorry Teyla was suffering from headaches, I am, but it's not the same. It's so far from being the same that it's not even in the same universe. You can go home.”

“You _are_ home.”

“That's not what I mean and you know it. You're Mr Fantastic and I'm…I'm - “

“The Thing was always my favourite member of The Fantastic Four,” John said.

Rodney's glare was exactly the same as it always was. John couldn't help but smile to see it.

“The Thing was nobody’s favourite,” he spat.

“He was mine,” John insisted. “I never thought of him as less than human. He looked a certain way, yes, but he had the biggest heart of any of them.” John shifted until he was sitting with his back to the wall, his shoulder pressed against Rodney's own. “You're still the same person you've always been,” he said quietly. “Everyone out there knows that and, honestly, if you think scales and red eyes are the weirdest thing any of us has seen, you need to brush up on the mission reports.”

“I can't. I need time. I need - -“

John reached out and grabbed Rodney's hand, entwining their fingers together. His skin was cold to the touch, so different to the heat that used to exude from Rodney no matter the temperature outside. It was nice.

“Take all the time you need. But let us in. Let me in.”

Rodney didn't move his hand which John took as a win for now.

They sat like that for a while, Rodney relaxing more and more as time passed, unfolding himself from the tight corner until he was sitting naturally next to John.

“Hey,” John broke the silence after a while, “wanna watch a movie?”

“What did you have in mind? And if you say the Fantastic Four, I’ll - -“

“What?” John teased. “You'll clobber me?”

The tiny smile on Rodney's face before he shoved John so hard he slid across the floor and crashed into the bed was totally worth it. For the first time since waking up in that cavern, John was hopeful that things could get better.

They had to.


End file.
